Distraction Can Keep You Alive

When you want to die it's easy to spend all your time thinking about it, feeling it, and imagining doing it.

As I've said before, what you focus on grows so the more you do this the more you're going to want to die.  Maybe to the point you actually do it.

In order to buy yourself some time and also take a break to see what else might be going on in the world, try some distraction.

Not just any old distraction but distraction specifically meant to occupy your mind and body for a little while.

I used to do it in the way of giving myself an assignment, like watching every single episode of a series in order, going through every Popeye's Chicken drive-thru in a 50 mile radius (yeah weird, I know), solving every crossword in a book and so on.

The reason you assign something rather than just looking for a random distraction is that it forces you to focus on something other than dying.  As you go through the assignment, you may also find that there's a feeling of accomplishment in getting things done, which may cause you to decide to get other things done.  It may also cause you to tell your friends you're too busy for them because you have to get chicken legs all over town.  Ha!  Just think of their faces when you hit them with that :)

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Another type of distraction that works is anything that makes you laugh.  For me this includes watching funny videos and YouTubes, reading and sharing jokes, and hanging out with people I think are funny.  When you laugh it releases different chemicals in your brain, which temporarily sets aside the "I want to die" feelings.

The trick here is you have to genuinely be amused.  No fake smiles while you're internally suffering or rolling your eyes.  Try different things until you find what works for you.

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A final thought on this.  Don't distract yourself with work or obligations.  All you'll do is get grumpy because you don't want to do them.  Do something fun, or if nothing seems fun then something you think might be fun.  And keep doing until you find something that actually IS fun!